1852
1852: On 7 November 1852, ST LOUIS (wooden side-wheeler, 190 foot, 618 tons, built in 1844, at Perrysburg, Ohio) was carrying railroad cars when she capsized and sank in a gale off Kelley’s Island on Lake Erie. She was owned by Beer & Samuel Ward.
1865
1865: On 7 November 1865, LILY DANCEY (2-mast wooden schooner, 92 foot, 132 gross tons built in 1856, at Goderich, Ontario) was carrying grain in a gale on Lake Huron when she was driven ashore near Port Elgin or Kincardine, Ontario. Her cargo was later recovered, but the schooner broke up by 27 November of that year.
1871
1871: On 07 November 1871, M COURTRIGHT (wooden schooner, 276 tons, built in 1856, at Erie, Pennsylvania) was carrying lumber in a storm on Lake Michigan. She struck bottom after her anchor dragged. She then became waterlogged. The crew abandoned in the yawl. The vessel went ashore several miles south of Kenosha, Wisconsin. The revenue cutter ANDREW JOHNSON tried in vain to pull her free but couldn’t. The COURTRIGHT broke up a few days later.
1885
1885: ALGOMA hit Greenstone Rock off Isle Royale, Lake Superior and became a total loss. There were 46 casualties and only 16 on board were saved.
1887
1887: OSCEOLA ran aground on Flat Rock Reef, Saginaw Bay, and all on board were rescued. The ship was abandoned as a total loss in December but refloated in the spring of 1888 and rebuilt.
1893
1893: On 7 November 1893, ALBANY (steel propeller package freighter, 267 foot, 1,918 gross tons, built in 1884, at Wyandotte, Michigan) collided with the iron freighter PHILADELPHIA in a thick fog. PHILADELPHIA took ALBANY in tow to try to save her, but she sank a few miles off Pointe aux Barques, Michigan. Her crew transferred to PHILADELPHIA, but they soon had to abandon her too since she also sank. Eight lives were lost, presumably when one of the lifeboats was run down by the still running, but abandoned, PHILADELPHIA.
1902
1902: In 1902, BRANSFORD rammed and sank the tug RECORD with a loss of a tug crewman in the Portage Lake Ship Canal in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Renamed b.) JOHN H MC GEAN in 1916, and c.) CLIFFORD F. HOOD in 1943, the HOOD was scrapped in Bilbao, Spain in 1974.
1906
1906: On 07 Nov 1906, the Grand Trunk carferry GRAND HAVEN (steel carferry, 306 foot, 2,320 gross tons built in 1903, at Toledo, Ohio) was put up for sale at a receiver’s auction when the Grand Trunk Car Ferry Line defaulted on its bonds. It was purchased by a new Grand Trunk subsidiary, the Grand Trunk Milwaukee Car Ferry Company. This vessel had a long career both on the Lakes and in the Caribbean. She was finally scrapped at Hamilton, Ontario in 1970.
1910
1910: WASAGA caught fire and burned off Copper Harbor while seeking shelter in a storm, but all on board survived.
1913
1913: On November 7, 1913, the storm responsible for sinking or damaging more vessels than any other began a six-day assault on the Great Lakes. The “Big Blow” of 1913, struck Lake Superior on November 7 and reached Lake Michigan by November 8, where the Pittsburgh Steamship Company vessel CLARENCE A. BLACK was severely damaged by the waves at the dock in Gary, Indiana.
1921
1921: ARAGON stranded off Salmon Point, Lake Ontario. It was released the following year but declared a total loss. The hull was sold and rebuilt and last sailed as BAYANNA in 1962.
1921: The wooden schooner barge MARY E. McLAUCHLAN sank in a storm on Nipigon Bay, Lake Superior.
1947
1947: CITY OF FLINT 32 ran aground at Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1947.
1947: WILLIAM C. WARREN ran aground near Presque Isle Point, Lake Huron, while downbound with grain and had to be abandoned to the underwriters. It was not released until the following year.
1959
1950: ARTHUR B HOMER (Hull#303) was launched November 7, 1959, for the Bethlehem Steel Corp., Cleveland, Ohio. She was the last ship built by Great Lakes Engineering at River Rouge, Michigan.
1969
1969: The Norwegian tanker CATE BROVIG hit the wall while upbound at the Eisenhower Lock and had a hole punched in the hull. The vessel was headed for Duluth. The ship first came inland in 1959 and was scrapped at Split, Yugoslavia as c) STAVROS T. in 1976.
1974
1974: IRIS had come to the Great Lakes in 1969 and 1971. It sank as d) EUROPEAN PERSISTENCE while 510 miles southeast of Bermuda after developing leaks while enroute from Tampa to Venice. All on board were rescued.
1983
1983: The T-2 converted laker HILDA MARJANNE’s 1961, German-built hull forward of the engine room, minus her pilot house, was towed by the tugs G W ROGERS and BAGOTVILLE to Port Weller Dry Docks arriving there on November 7, 1983. This section was to become part of the CANADIAN RANGER.
1989
1989: On November 7, 1989, the SAMUEL MATHER, a.) HENRY FORD II, was moved to Toledo’s C & O Frog Pond on her way to the cutter’s torch.
1991
1991: The former Swedish freighter FALKON, a first time Seaway trader in 1984, sank as c) APPOLONIA FAITH off the southwest coast of Sardinia while traveling from Valencia, Spain, to Piraeus, Greece. Two lives were lost.
2020
2020: Respected Toledo photographer and marine historian Jim Hoffman passed away after waging a valiant battle against cancer. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1967-1971 on various lifeboat stations and offshore lighthouses on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. While he was in the Coast Guard, he started taking pictures of boats and traveled to all five Great Lakes and the Welland Canal to do so. He primarily used a small boat as well as bridges and various shoreline areas for his marine photography. He was named the Historian of the Year by the Marine Historical Society of Detroit earlier this year. His generosity in sharing, along with his love of ship photography over the decades, has provided thousands of beautiful historic ship images, and he was always glad to share them and even tell stories or talk about histories of the vessels.
Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Dave Swayze, Father Dowling Collection, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Jody Aho, Max Hanley, Ahoy & Farewell II and the Great Lakes Ships We Remember series.